neptul

Well, it's the rainy season at the Sagar Tree and the valley is slowly filling up with water. A perfectly natural yearly occurrence, right? If you answered yes, please go back to the end of the line and keep reading. In fact, things are so bad in Floodville that Blackstar speculates the Vizir or even--gasp!--the Overlord might be behind this mess, and assists the Trobbits in gathering some of the firefruit Balkar needs for his weather magic. Poor Overlord, he gets blamed for everything, except in this case the blame is well deserved. In yet another one of his incredibly convoluted plans to get the Starsword, he arranges for our heroes to get swept out of the valley, into the Magnetic Sea and into a whirlpool where they end up in the kingdom of Neptul, Lord of Aquaria.

In Neptul's throne room, the Overlord is busy fuming over his minion's failure to capture Blackstar and blows up a few objects to get his point across. Cowering on his throne and ever-anxious to please, Neptul assures his lord and master that he's made arrangements.

Meanwhile, our heroes are wandering through a labyrinth of undersea caverns and becoming, as Klone puts it, "hopelessly lost." Only writer Michael J. Reeves would have Blackstar using the Starsword as a lantern in the dark tunnels, or use Klone to such great effect; Reeves is, in fact, the only writer who is truly able to handle these characters. With seven Trobbits and three heroes (although in some episodes either Mara or Klone is absent), plus any bad guys and supporting characters that happen to be in the plot, character development sometimes gets shoved by the wayside. Reeves does an incredible juggling act with a full cast, remembering to give each character something important to do or say.

The supporting characters in this case are the cave dwellers, or Firefolk. After some initial hostility, they calm down and start to warm up to our heroes. They admire Blackstar's "weapon of fire," and really like Rif, who "wears a flame on his brow." And you thought only Tolkien could write dialogue like this. Yeah, Blackstar's "fireside chat" comment is truly bad, but he just wouldn't be Our Hero if he didn't cough up a few shitty one-liners every episode.

The Firefolk came up from the planet's core years earlier and are now trapped in Aquaria. They stay in their caverns, afraid of the Aquarians ("the cold ones") and their water weapons, which are basically shell-shaped trumpets out of which Neptul's warriors blow water. But because Blackstar and his buddies aren't like the other cold ones, the Firefolk agree to help our heroes escape Aquaria.

The Trobbits are actually part of the story rather than a troublesome lot needing to be rescued. Klone is given several extremely useful transformations, including the famous "cloudcat," (pictured, left) which actually retains some of Klone's features and would become part of the Galoob Klone figure; it is, in our opinion, the most memorable transformation he ever makes, thanks in part to the cool transparent animation and a droll line, delivered to a stunned Aquarian warrior: "What's the matter, you never saw a cloudcat before?" Finally, although Blackstar still has the odd one-liner or two, he actually comes across as halfway intelligent.

Back at the Sagar Tree, the floodwaters are rising and none of Balkar's spells work without the firefruit. You'd think with all the other paraphenalia the Trobbit wizard has stashed in his laboratory, he'd think to stock some firefruit. Alas, no, and now the water is coming in through the upper story windows. The Trobbits are in serious danger of drowning, until a mysterious ball of light enters, lifts them up and out to safety.

Mara asks Balkar where Blackstar and the other Trobbits are; she doesn't think to ask about Klone, which just goes to show you nobody cares about a third banana who just happens to be able to morph into any living creature. Although troubled at the disappearance of Sagar's most eligible bachelor, Mara nevertheless has a way of finding him. She asks for an object belonging to Blackstar. Balkar coughs up a cell phone. Yeah, a cell phone, or for those of you who actually remember beyond the 1990s, a walkie-talkie. Now we have to ask why Balkar is carrying this thing around with him ("It doesn't work now, of course.") and why Mara couldn't get something a little more, you know, personal. A pair of dirty gym socks or a box of Trojans would have done it for us. Alas, we get stuck with the broken electronics, and Mara quickly uses it to home in on Our Hero.

If you had not noticed, Mara's spells do not have to rhyme in order to work. Somehow, listening to Linda Gary recite in bad iambic pentameter just isn't on our list of things we'd like to see in this series; it also underscores the difference between Mara and Balkar in their magic. Mara simply tells the object to home in on Blackstar, and it does.

Since Balkar's lab is practically underwater at this point and the location doesn't resemble any previous interior shot of the Sagar Tree, we're not sure where this scene takes place. It's a large room with a long table and chairs that aren't to Trobbit scale. We're guessing this is part of Mara's bachelorette pad.

At this point, we find out exactly what Neptul meant when he said he'd made arrangements. The doors fly open to the crash of thunder and a bunch of Aquarian warriors storm the place, making off with all the Trobbits except Poulo, whom Mara rescues at the very last second. Still holding the cell phone, she conjures a spell that whisks her and Poulo to Aquaria, and right into the middle of yet another battle.

Being the evil bastard that he is, the Overlord seizes the opportunity to use the captive Trobbits as hostages. The message he sends Blackstar is simple: he'll set them free if Blackstar coughs up the Starsword. You mean there's a choice involved here? Uh, it was nice knowing you guys and all, but.... Well, being the soft-hearted, predictable guy Blackstar is, he can't just let Balkar and the other Trobbits rot in an Aquarian dungeon, yet on the other hand there's no way he's giving up the Starsword. We already saw what happened with that in "Spacewrecked." Once the Overlord has the Powerstar, all bets are off and he starts blowing the shit out of the place. So the plan is basically to fool the Overlord into giving up the Trobbits.

Except that it isn't the Starsword.

Well, duh. The Overlord was right in suspecting a trick. From under the folds of her impromptu cloak, Mara produces the real Starsword and hands it to Blackstar. Technically he's held up his part of the deal, although why the Overlord, being the powerful wizard he is, couldn't sense an illusion is beyond us. There's a big flash of light as the illusory Starsword disappears, and the Powersword goes flying across the room and into Klone's hands.

As demonstrated in this episode and in "Lightning City of the Clouds," heroes should never attempt to throw anything of importance to each other, because the opposition will always block the throw. What could have been Blackstar's moment of triumph instead turns into a battle in Neptul's throne room.

The Firefolk appear and vengefully gang up on their Aquarian tormentors, who counter with their water weapons. Showered with water, the Firefolk begin to diminish, until Terra produces some firefruit from his pack. Not only does this stuff increase their flame, it's also the Trobbit version of the hand grenade! Just pop the stem, toss it and watch your enemies go flying. We can only wonder what would happen if someone were to accidently eat one of these fruits.

Even without his sword, the Overlord isn't exactly powerless, as Blackstar learns while attempting to block his adversary's escape. And nearby, Neptul, who by this time is very much aware of his big fuck-up, picks up the fallen Powersword and attempts to redeem himself; it's only a quick blast from one of our heroes that prevents the unsuspecting Blackstar from ending up as a pile of rubble.

Powersword once again in hand, the Overlord rushes up the stairs and out onto a terrace. Blackstar follows, calling out that he's "all washed up." We've said it before, he just wouldn't be Our Hero if he didn't toss out a cheesy one-liner or two in the heat of battle. The problem is, the Overlord has one very big trump card left to play. Pointing the Powersword directly up at the ceiling, he blows a crack in the dome that immediately starts pumping water into the city. This guy takes defeat really hard, it seems, and is obviously willing to drown a few thousand of his own minions in order to be rid of Blackstar. As for the Starsword, he'll just come back later and pick it up off the ocean floor. So saying, he disappears in a flash of light, leaving our heroes to deal with the oncoming flood.

Now if the Overlord can crack the dome with the Powersword, why can't Blackstar simply use the Starsword to patch it up? Either the water is coming in too fast or he just isn't the Overlord's equal in the power department, because he has to call on Mara and the Firefolk to help him. The crack is sealed, the city is saved and our heroes can go home.